Here are the projects currently under way (or being actively contemplated on the freebsd-doc mailing list). I have also included some that have not really been talked about, but would probably be a good idea. Each project lists the contact person for that project (if I know who it is).

If you think you can contribute to any of these, please do not hesitate to stand up and be counted. You should talk to the person responsible for that particular project, who can then bring you up to speed on what is happening.

Any ommissions in this list are entirely my fault (Nik Clayton, <nik@FreeBSD.ORG>), sorry in advance to anyone whose project I have missed.

Fixup the FOO.TXT files

Responsible: Doug <studded@dal.net>

Synopsis: The "FOO.TXT" files are the README files, the INSTALL.TXTs. the ABOUT.TXTs and so on that you get with FreeBSD. Doug (and others) are going through these trying to make sure they are accurate, consistent, and easy to understand. A very worthwhile task.

Migrate the Handbook from LinuxDoc to DocBook

Responsible: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>

Synopsis: The FreeBSD Handbook is being migrated from the LinuxDoc DTD to the DocBook DTD. Along the way a few wrinkles are being bumped into, particularly involving TeX. A plan has been drawn up, preparatory work has been done, but it will be a few weeks before it is finished.

Write a section in the Handbook and/or FAQ

Responsible: No one

Synopsis: Chunks of the FAQ and Handbook have empty sections in them. They need filling. If you have just had to use one of these documents to complete a task, and found them lacking, please find the time to write up your experiences as a possible replacement.

Alternatively, if you have just had to do something that had no entry in the FAQ and/or Handbook, please consider writing a new section. Then submit it as outlined above.

Write the "This is how the Handbook is made" document

Responsible: No one (although I can offer assistance)

Synopsis: The mechanism used to put the constituent parts of the Handbook together to make the HTML, Postscript, and plain text versions is not particularly well documented. If you want to learn how this process works, and want to document it as well, please get in touch.

You will be doing everyone else a big favour, because it then makes it much easier for people to contribute documentation that can just slot into the Handbook.

Rewrite the Handbook :-)

Responsible: No one, yet

Synopsis: The Handbook has grown quite organically over the past few years. This means some of the sections are not organised as well as they could be, and some of it needs reworking.

Someone needs to

• Read the Handbook thoroughly
• Come up with a revised structure for it
• Understand how the Handbook is implemented (this will mean learning some stuff about SGML, and probably liasing with the DocBook migration project)
• Actually do the rework.

To break this into manageable chunks, it would be really handy if someone could first maintain a web page that lists people's current comments about the Handbook structure. That would at least give us all something to work from.

If no one steps forward to handle this I am going to do it. It will just take me a while to get to it (since I need to get the DocBook migration out of the way first).